tardily | ( ic contact ) - ( sorry, guys, i got a little held up. you had to be there. )

because despite my best efforts, i always manage to just shove my foot in my mouth during all conversations we have. seriously, i think the whole...eating thing we did with the chips was one of the few times i barely did it.

that's fine. i really am sorry about the league thing. even if you're not mad at me and are more mad with everyone else. i know how bad that can be and you should have been told at the beginning.

you focus on what you're doing too. what's keeping you busy.

can i come over i need help

[Wally doesn't respond to this text. He almost does, so many times. He keeps it open on his phone and looks at it until his eyes burn, when he's trying to sleep, when he's trying to do homework and gets stuck. When he's staring at the notes he's made about "dimensional phase shifting" and "porter theory" and other science that's just plain beyond his ability to suss out.

He looks at it when he peeks into Bart's room to see his cousin lying on his side, quiet and unmoving but definitely, absolutely not asleep. He looks at this text when Robin doesn't meet his eyes across the kitchen counter, when a joke falls flat between them.

This is unfair.

This is so fucking unfair.

This isn't his Barry. He doesn't want to replace his uncle. But everything he does and says sounds like his uncle and Wally spends so much of his time scared that he's forgotten what it's like not to have a knife to your throat, not to work like a maniac trying to outrun a tsunami. He's forgotten what it's like to be Wally without faking it most of the time and Barry not snapping at him, not yelling at him for being a prick makes it worse because it's like Barry knows that's why he's like this. Wally's never been so sharply hateful toward anyone like he's been to this Barry, not even toward Artemis, and still Barry comes back with things like this time and time again.

Wally rereads the text when he tries to go to sleep on the 11th, like he's been doing every night.

because we're both flashes.

He turns his phone off, rolls over and tries, again, to sleep.]

Edited 2015-09-13 06:15 (UTC)

[ barry almost says no, almost says no because he's not up to dealing with trying to not wake up eobard and explaining why wally's here at four or five am when the demon who wakes up at or before the crack of dawn wakes up.

but then he looks at wally's name just for a second, just at the last name and reminds himself that even if it's another universe and even if in wally's case it's only by marriage, the guy's still family. he's still family and barry can't say no to any of them. besides, what kind of person would he be if he said no. ( well besides a person who wanted to sleep. ) ]

yeah. just text me when you get here. i'll open the door so you don't have to knock.

and ignore my hair. i was sleeping, i'm probably rocking major bedhead.

Edited (i wanted to word my sad brackets differently) 2015-09-13 06:32 (UTC)

[Wally's heart sinks when he reads that. He doesn't know.

...well, of course he doesn't, it just happened. But that means- Shit- No, he can't- he's not thinking about this right now, he just-

Wally almost trips over his feet pulling on his sneakers, and he's still in his own sleep clothes, sweatpants and an old t-shirt and he's running to Barry's house, all the way down to Florida and he doesn't realize how fast he was going when he gets there quicker than he ever has. He almost knocks on Barry's door but he sends a text with shaking hands because the run didn't do anything, didn't help him clear his head, didn't help him calm down.]

outside

[His eyes are burning. Bart's gone, again. It's only been hours, maybe even minutes so he could still come back but it's getting old and everything with Robin is wrong and he can't sleep, he can't sleep and he pushes his goggles up into his sweaty hair before just tearing them off completely and throwing them onto the grass, running his hand through his hair and his breath hitches because standing here, outside Barry's house feels like something big is going to suffocate him if he doesn't just-

If he doesn't-

The door opens and Wally lunges, throws arms around Barry and shoves his face against his shoulder, shaking with sobs.]

[ It's sheer luck that keeps Barry from toppling over when Wally lunges at him as soon as the door opens. He's so caught off guard by Wally lunging that it takes a moment for him to register that not only is Wally shaking in his arms but that he's shaking because he's crying.

As soon as he realizes what this could mean, he stops breathing. If it was Robin and Bart was here, then he would go to Bart. Either Robin and Bart are gone or just Bart is but either way that still— means he's gone. He could come back like he did before and like Wally did before and like Barry himself did before but he's gone.

He's gone and Wally came to him to cry. His arms were only loosely around Wally right after he lunged, but it doesn't take him long to end up wrapping them around tighter. His own eyes are starting to burn a bit and he can feel his nose starting to stuff up just a bit like he's going to join Wally before he takes a breath. And another slow one.

Not for the first time he wishes Joe were here, or his dad or his mom. They'd be able to make it so he wasn't the one who'd have to try and not cry. But they're not here and Cisco's asleep and— A deep breath. ]

Shhhh. [ He murmurs and later on he knows he's going to kick himself for that being the first thing he says but it feels right just like putting his hands on Wally's back is and making sure one's maybe trying to rub in a circle to get him to calm down. ] Let's get you to the couch or both of us to the kitchen with chairs. I'm right here, Wally. I've got you.

[It's not the same.

He's about as tall as the Barry from home, but not as bulky. His voice is different, even if the way he says things is similar. He doesn't know that when Wally was a kid, he always reacted better to having his hair ruffled than his back patted, but it doesn't matter.

Barry suggests moving and Wally makes fists at the back of his shirt, holding on tighter. All he wants is five minutes, just five minutes of not being someone who has to hold things together, five minutes he can't have with anybody else, not Jaime, not even Robin. What he really wants is for all of this to go away but there's no way to make that happen. Hell, even if he died here he'd just be brought right back...and it would be kind of ridiculous to expect dying to make his fear of dying go away.

This isn't the Barry from home. And this isn't the Barry who'd always yank him out of the way of trouble, the one who taught him how to run, who'd carried him to the hospital that one time he took a spike of ice to the knee. This isn't the Barry he watched on TV for hours and hours on end, and this isn't the Barry who took him to museums and desperately tried to buy his love before he figured out how to earn it because he'd just wanted Wally to like him, had just wanted some dumb ginger kid to look up to him and love him like family.

It's not the same.

But this'll do fine.

Wally doesn't let Barry pull him into the house for at least another five minutes and by then he's calmed down considerably. He sits down at the table without a fuss, eyes red and puffy and nose still running until he can blow it. He's miserable, sure, but more than anything he looks tired. He just looks so tired and he feels tired and he wants to lay his head down and sleep for weeks and not deal with anything anymore.]

Yellow Bolt.
Mercury Man.
All-American Racer.

Pick your new superhero name.

[This of course has everything to do with those awful posters at the Swear-In.]

Does Cisco know about this text? I think Cisco might need to know about this text.

[ ...or he really doesn't. ]

I like Mercury Man. The others are a little weird. And pretty someone else might already have the whole All-American thing going for him.

[ someone else, like superman being all american isn't noticeable. ]

You'd have to change yours too you know. If you still wanna be my reverse. Would that make you Pluto Man? Or Pluto Pal?

I know and I've already planned ahead for the change.

Red Bolt.
Hermes.
Communist Sprinter.

Personally I like the first two, but with the third one I figure I need to play up the Red Scare aspect of the propaganda machine.

If you go for Communist Sprinter, there's a chance it might get misread. Or you might be confused for an actual Olympian. Not that you don't run into that with Hermes but I wasn't talking about the Greek god Olympians.

Are you sure there isn't anyone named Red Bolt in our universe? That might come here and wonder why you've ruined their good name.

True, but the point is to be as ludicrous as possible here.

And there is no Red Bolt, not in my time or in yours. Don't worry, no one is going to come and steal your thunder.

[Except Jay Garrick but shhhhhh neither of them know that yet.]

It isn't easy, meeting someone you know who doesn't know you. When they're not the person you expect. And Wally's always been stubborn, especially when it's about people he loves.

And he's probably always going to sass you a little. Again, because Wally.

But I'm glad you're getting better. I think you can have something good, even if it's something different.

If that's the only point, then I think your names might be a little lacking. Because none of them make me lol immediately.

Really? Did you really have to use the phrase steal your thunder? Or was that your way of just getting your own laughs in.

[ Jay Garrick clearly doesn't exist right now, clearly. If only they knew. ]

I know. I mean, it's not the same or me, but you know, you meet all these people you're supposed to know and you don't. I always feel bad about it, because I can't change it until...I actually meet them. I don't blame him...if you're going to be stubborn about something it doesn't get much better.

I can take it. I've grown up around my version of his aunt and her dad. West sass is clearly a crossuniversal thing. And one of the few things I can be 100 percent prepared for.

At the risk of sounding like I'm sounding really way too hopeful, you really think so?

I've been in both of your positions: meeting someone I know who doesn't know me, and the reverse, too. Neither one is fun.

But trust me. I know him better than anybody. He can be grumpy, but he'll warm up eventually. Like a Hot Pocket.

I only ever act on necessity Barry. But, yes, it was intentionally clever of me.

[""Clever.""]

If you're going to be such a critic, then make some up of your own. Cisco can't do all the creative lifting for you. No matter how much he wants to.

Edited (font) 2015-09-23 00:24 (UTC)

With...you know? I'm not going to press, none of my business. I'm glad you understand, mostly.

...You do know I have to ask if he'll burn me when he's finally warmed up now right? Because you know how they work even if you're really careful. There's always a burnt tongue/lips/mouth.

The Batman here doesn't have a Robin back home. Similar situation to you and KF. And then I've met more than a few people who know me when I'm older. Another me, mostly.
It never gets less weird.

HA! Gonna be honest: he might. But I think it's a risk worth taking.

I think if it ever got less weird. we might need to worry about our mental states.

Yeah. What's life without a little bit of risk? Thanks...for actually reassuring me about this to be honest.

[Now HERE’S a sight. How did they even manage this one? There appears to be an otherworldly visitor in the front yard. Only someone incredibly quick or incredibly stealthy could’ve pulled off a job this big in the middle of the night! Especially in front of the house of two very powerful speedsters.

Well. It is a mystery. ]

so i dont remember anything for the past 24 hours and there is a huge scorch mark on the garage floor

this bodes the opposite of well

that's...probably because you weren't here for the past 24 hours. surprise! i mean that doesn't quite explain the scorch mark, but i still am not sure that wasn't there before and we just didn't notice.

...are you in the garage right now??

[ please say yes, so he can superspeed bro hug you, cisco. ]

no i'm pretty sure this is a new scorch mark but what do you mean i wasn't here?

and yeah i am

( ic contact ) - ( sorry, guys, i got a little held up. you had to be there. )

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text - 9/12, 4 am

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9/13 text

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ten million years late to this tag party

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it's our tag party, we can be late if we want to

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Oct 31st, Morning (not here)

text; earlier sunday morning than cisco is usually awake.

text; you mean earlier than anyone in this house should be awake.

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